100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Lobster, langoustines and scallops, raw oysters, sea and river fish such as roasted halibut, sole or poached cod with lemon, chicken or veal in a light cream sauce, and aged goat cheese.

Winemaking: The domaine follows a traditional approach, fermenting and aging its wines mostly in vats with some time in older barrels, and bottling them roughly 18 to 24 months after the harvest.

Vineyards and terroir: Séchet lies in the middle of the Premier Cru hillside on the left bank, southwest of Chablis, close to Vaillons, on well-drained limestone over Kimmeridgian marl. Its good exposure favors reliable ripening, and it gives supple, open wines from a young age. The family holds about one and a quarter hectares here, and Séchet is consistently the most elegant, floral and fine of the domaine's Premier Crus.

Family and history: The Dauvissat family has owned this domaine since 1899. Its cellars lie beneath a 17th-century house, the former presbytery of Petit Pontigny, where the road to the hamlet of Chichée begins; they were enlarged in 1980 and keep the wines at 10 to 15°C summer and winter. The first bottlings under the Dauvissat name were made on a small scale in 1963, and in 1978 and 1979 Jean Dauvissat expanded estate bottling, eventually ending sales to négociants. Today his son Sébastien Dauvissat runs the domaine, which is distinct from the other Dauvissat estates of Chablis.

In the pictures: Barrels in the domaine's cellar; the vaulted cellar beneath the family house; and the domaine's tasting room in Chablis (photos courtesy of Domaine Jean et Sébastien Dauvissat).